DORSET AND EAST DEVON COAST UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHEN IRELAND The succession of rocks displayed in the cliffs between Lyme Regis and Swanage is one of the finest marine Jurassic rock sections in the world. With the east Devon coast, they provide an almost continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks which document approximately 185 million years of Earth’s history. The important vertebrate and invertebrate, marine and terrestrial fossil sites and geomorphologic features of the coast preserve excellent evidence of life during Mesozoic times and have contributed to the study of the earth sciences for over 200 years. COUNTRY United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland NAME Dorset and East Devon Coast NATURAL WORLD HERITAGE SERIAL SITE 2001: Inscribed on the World Heritage List under Natural Criterion viii. STATEMENT OF OUTSTANDING UNIVERSAL VALUE The UNESCO World Heritage Committee issued the following Statement of Outstanding Universal Value at the time of inscription: Brief Synthesis The Dorset and East Devon Coast has an outstanding combination of globally significant geological and geomorphological features. The property comprises eight sections along 155 km of largely undeveloped coast. The property's geology displays approximately 185 million years of the Earth's history, including a number of internationally important fossil localities. The property also contains a range of outstanding examples of coastal geomorphological features, landforms and processes, and is renowned for its contribution to earth science investigations for over 300 years, helping to foster major contributions to many aspects of geology, palaeontology and geomorphology. This coast is considered by geologists and geomorphologists to be one of the most significant teaching and research sites in the world. Criterion (viii): The coastal exposures along the Dorset and East Devon coast provide an almost continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning the Mesozoic Era and document approximately 185 million years of Earth's history. The property includes a range of globally significant fossil localities - both vertebrate and invertebrate, marine and terrestrial - which have produced well preserved and diverse evidence of life during Mesozoic times. It also contains textbook exemplars of coastal geomorphological features, landforms and processes. Renowned for its contribution to Earth science investigations for over 300 years, the Dorset and East Devon coast has helped foster major contributions to many aspects of geology, palaeontology and geomorphology and has continuing significance as a high quality teaching, training and research resource for the Earth sciences. Integrity The property contains all the key, interdependent elements of geological succession exposed on the coastline. It includes a series of coastal landforms whose processes and evolutionary conditions are little impacted by human activity, and the high rate of erosion and mass movement in the area creates a very dynamic coastline which maintains both rock exposures and geomorphological features, and also the productivity of the coastline for fossil discoveries. The property comprises eight sections in a near-continuous 155 km of coastline with its boundaries defined by natural phenomena: on the seaward side the property extends to the mean low water mark and on the landward side to the cliff top or back of the beach. This is also in general consistent with the boundaries of the nationally and internationally designated areas that protect the property and much of its setting. Due to the high 1 rate of erosion and mass movement, it is important to periodically monitor the boundaries of the properties to ensure that significant changes to the shoreline are registered. Protection and Management Requirements The property has strong legal protection, a clear management framework and the strong involvement of all stakeholders with responsibilities for the property and its setting. A single management plan has been prepared and is coordinated by the Dorset and Devon County Councils. There is no defined buffer zone as the wider setting of the property is well protected through the existing designations and national and local planning policies. In addition to its geological, paleontological and geomorphological significance, the property includes areas of European importance for their habitats and species which are an additional priority for protection and management. The main management issues with respect to the property include: coastal protection schemes and inappropriate management of visitors to an area that has a long history of tourism; and the management of ongoing fossil collection research, acquisition and conservation. The key requirement for the management of this property lies in continued strong and adequately resourced coordination and partnership arrangements focused on the World Heritage property. INTERNATIONAL DESIGNATIONS 1987: Chesil Beach and The Fleet designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance (748 ha); 1992: The Exe Estuary designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance (2,346 ha). IUCN MANAGEMENT CATEGORY East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: V Protected Landscape/Seascape Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: V Protected Landscape/Seascape East Devon Heritage Coast: V Protected Landscape/Seascape Purbeck Heritage Coast: V Protected Landscape/Seascape Axmouth-Lyme Regis Undercliffs National Nature Reserve: IV Habitat/Species Management Area BIOGEOGRAPHICAL PROVINCE British Islands (2.8.5) GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION This serial site runs 155 km along nine sections of the coast of southwest England from Orcombe Rocks near Exmouth in east Devon to Studland Bay in east Dorset, excluding the towns of Budleigh Salterton, Sidmouth, Seaton, Lyme Regis, West Bay, Weymouth and Swanage. The sites run from the top of the inmost cliff-scarp, or from the back of beaches to as far as the mean low tide mark. The whole property lies between 50°36'23"N by 3°23' 03"W and 50°38'24"N by 1°56'21"W. DATES AND HISTORY OF ESTABLISHMENT 1955: Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs declared a National Nature Reserve; 1957: Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) designated as the Dorset Downs, Heaths and Coast Landscape to conserve a landscape of high quality; 1963: East Devon AONB designated for the same reason; (AONBs total 87% of the site); All three sites are protected under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. The property contains 14 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), notified under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act; It also contains or lies within areas designated of international importance for wildlife, either as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) or a Special Protection Area (SPA) under the European Council Habitats Directive 92/43 or Birds Directive 79409. At the east and west ends of the property are the Purbeck Heritage and East Devon Heritage Coasts, national, non-statutory designations applied by the Countryside Agency to attractive coastlines. LAND TENURE The Coast is in the ownership of some 80 landowners or leaseholders, about 95 out of 155 kilometres being owned by large private estates, public bodies or conservation agencies such as the Clinton Devon Estate, the Weld Estate and Lulworth Estate, the National Trust, the Crown (royal) Estate, East Devon District Council, Dorset County Council and the Ministry of Defence. 2 The National Trust owns about 35 km of coastline, along the East Devon Coast, the Golden Cap Estate and Burton Beach in west Dorset, parts of the south and east coasts of Purbeck and several smaller sites. The Crown owns almost all the inter-tidal area, the southeastern 4 km of Chesil Beach and c.9 km of the cliffs and undercliffs of the Isle of Portland. The entire 13 km bed of the Fleet Lagoon and 9 km of Chesil Beach are owned by Ilchester Estates, and are managed as Chesil and Fleet Local Nature Reserve. Dorset County Council owns c.3 km of coastline at Durlston Head, Purbeck which is managed as a public country park. East Devon District Council owns 6 km in three holdings near Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) holds c.5 km of coastline at Lulworth Gunnery Ranges. Portland Port and Hanson Bath and Portland Stone own two commercial sites in northern and northeastern parts of the undercliff and shore on the Isle of Portland. AREA Approximately 2,550 ha. ALTITUDE From -5m in Fleet lagoon to 208m (190m Golden Cap near Lyme). PHYSICAL FEATURES The succession of marine Jurassic rocks in the cliffs between Lyme Regis and Swanage is one of the finest sections of marine Jurassic rocks in the world, justifying its name The Jurassic Coast. They are exposed where the rolling downland landscape of Dorset is abruptly truncated by the sea. To its west lies a succession of even earlier Triassic cliffs. The whole consists of nine stretches of undeveloped coastline from Orcombe Rocks to Chit Rocks at Sidmouth - Sidmouth to Seaton Hole - Axmouth to Monmouth Beach at Lyme Regis - Lyme Regis to West Bay - West Bay-Chesil Beach & the Fleet to Pulpit Rock - Portland Bill to Kings Pier - Portland harbour shore - Bowlease Cove to Peveril Point - and New Swanage to Studland Bay. Five small and two larger coastal towns are excluded from the site. Over eighty percent of the site is coastal cliffs but it includes landslips, undercliffs, bays, beaches and lagoons. Undercliffs are those landscapes of peaks, gullies and slipped blocks formed by cliffside slumps that become densely vegetated The site’s landward boundary runs from the topmost break of a cliff, or from the back of beaches, to as far seaward as the mean low tide mark as defined by the U.K.Ordnance Survey. For part of the Triassic and most of the Jurassic period, shallow tropical seas covered east Devon and Dorset and marine life flourished. Subsidence and sea level changes created deep-water environments in which desert muds and shales settled, and shallow seas in which sands and lime-rich sediments accumulated.